How journey driven design could lead to a more successful site

by Michael Gabrian on 04/11/2017

User experience is one of those design buzz words we here quite often. I want to "optimize my UX" or have an "intuitive UI/UX." That's fair, everyone wants a great site. But how do we really ensure a solid user experience so that the visitor is on their ideal path and converts at the end?

The answer? Journey Driven Design.

I tramp a perpetual journey.

- Walt Whitman

Web development projects typically start with a research phase. This is the set aside time to go over goals, expectations, who visits your site, how to appeal to them, etc. While using Journey Driven methodology, you'd create several buyer personas, each with the "ideal" purchase path. There will likely be a few. This is crucial for actually understanding the user's side of your site.

Is Mobile-First used with Journey Driven?

Pretty much everyone uses their phones to browse the internet, so things like mobile-first can't just be replaced. You see, mobile-first revolves around designing the mobile layouts before building out to larger screens. This is done so that the designer can work within those space constraints to fit the important elements.

But what if when you're going through your personas, you realize that most of them visit your site via desktop and not so much mobile?

Maybe a strategy like mobile first wouldn't be the place to start. Instead, pave the perfect path through your desktop layouts, since that's what the data is telling.

Can Journey Driven and Growth Driven work together?

This methodology succeeds because it takes user data and makes smart improvements based on that data. It pretty much tracks visitors while on their journey, sees how they interact, and gives you data that will tell you how the path should change or where it's going wrong.

So how does Journey Driven fit in?

Well, both require a lot of planning and strategy. They start with buyer personas, detailed goal setting, and journey mapping. From there, you start building. Chisel out the most important pieces first. Look back at your persona if you're not sure where to start. Try beginning with the pages that make up their ideal path.

Next, growth driven methodology will kick in and you will make updates based on continuously gathered user data. You'll be able to understand where people leave your site, where they decide to convert, etc. This means that the path to conversions will ultimately be perfected over time.